Labour warned by unionist

Press, 26 February 1987, Page 21

Labour warned by unionist

Labour will lose this year’s General Election unless it comes to terms with listening to traditional Labour supporters, according to a Wellington trade unionist, Mr Pat Kelly. Mr Kelly, a member of the Economic Policy Network, a Labour Left group, was responding to the Prime Minister’s description of the group as “economic Neanderthals.”

Mr Kelly said that the group worked in the longterm and short-term interests of the Labour Party. It was better the party listened to it than to “the Round Table and the international and domestic monopolies that are bringing this country to its knees,” he said.

Mr Lange’s “mouthing off’ did nothing to address the problems of "rising unemployment, regional ■ and falling living standards.” Mr Lange's. comments were made after the group had expressed dissatisfaction with the Gov-

ernment’s economic direction and called for a more controlled economy.

Criticising that implied criticism of the policies of the first Labour Government of 1935, said Mr Kelly.

The policies of the first Labour Government had laid the basis for the progress New Zealand had made since then. To be consistent, Mr Lange should explain where those policies were in error.

New Zealand was still an exporting country, but it had to be on the basis of protecting its “domestic backside,” Mr Kelly said.